LYFORD — In Lyford and Santa Rosa’s first meeting, it was the Warriors who held down their home field in a 9-0 District 32-3A win.
Santa Rosa put Lyford in a 4-0 hole early once again on Tuesday night after 1½ innings, but an eight-run bottom of the second inning by the Bulldogs paved the way for a 14-5 home victory.
Santa Rosa starting pitcher AJ Mendiola gave the Bulldogs fits in their first meeting, but this time around the senior pitcher was chased off the mound after giving up six earned runs on eight hits while striking out none.
“We had trouble with Mendiola the first time out because he’s a great pitcher who hits really good location,” Lyford head coach Jaime Salazar said. “We had to get our machines up to 80 mph in practice because this kid can throw and our kids handled their pitchers well tonight. I know we have a great bunch of kids. I know a majority of our kids our sophomores, but we have about three seniors who have good leadership skills and who know what to do; we’re getting better every day.”
Lyford recorded 14 hits while Santa Rosa struggles on the infield led to four errors and three unearned runs.
With the Bulldogs out to rebound and the Warriors coming off a big 5-4 win over Falfurrias last week, Santa Rosa head coach Steve Mendoza felt his team took their foot off the gas.
“After a big win over Falfurrias, I thought the guys would fall into a trap game and sure enough, they did. We broke down defensively and gave up the big second inning. We missed routine plays and without them it probably would’ve been 4-0 out of that inning,” Mendoza said. “We didn’t put the ball in play, but Lyford did. Give credit to them because they had like 14 hits tonight.”
The Warriors began the night running the bases aggressively.
In the first inning, up 1-0, Warrior shortstop Leo Lara gave Santa Rosa a 2-0 lead with an RBI double which brought in Mendiola. In the second, a wild pitch and a sac fly gave the Warriors a 4-0 lead.
The bottom started to fall out almost immediately as Mendiola gave up three straight Bulldog hits to load the bases to start the bottom of the second inning.
A 2-RBI single from Lyford’s Kyle Garcia scored two runners and cut the lead to 4-2.
After an Andrew Ybarra RBI single scored Garcia to tie the game at 4-4, an RBI triple by Sammy Rocha brought in three runs and give Lyford the lead for good.
Rocha was 3 for 3 at the plate with three RBIs, while Blake Correa was 3 for 4 with 2 RBIs.
Garcia was 2 for 4 with three RBIs for Lyford.
Mendiola takes the loss for Santa Rosa and Lyford’s Correa picks up the win after 3.0 innings of relief work.